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Bangladesh seeks $5b foreign investment

Holds road show in London Dec 15-16; targets 3,200MW power, LNG terminal

Sharier Khan
An 11-member delegation headed by the adviser to prime minister on energy will leave for London today to hold a road show in London to attract around five billion dollar investment for nine power projects with a total production capacity of more than 3,200 megawatt plus a lique-
fied natural gas (LNG) terminal for import of gas.
To be held on December 15-16, the road show is expected to draw more than 50 power companies and also financiers, industry-related contractors, LNG terminal manufacturers and at least 20 nonresident Bangladeshis, sources said.
The team led by Towfiq-e-Elahi
Chowdhury will include chief of the Board of Investment (BOI) SA Samad and secretaries of the ministries of power and law, chairmen of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (Berc), Power Development Board (PDB), Petrobangla and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, a deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank FROM PAGE 1
and PDB officials. Each of them will address different aspects of investment in the energy sector of Bangladesh.
It will seek investors for four coal-fired 500 MW power plants in Meghnaghat, Zajira, Khulna and Chittagong. The government intends to use supercritical pressure technology for plants to ensure least greenhouse emission while the financing will be done on the basis of privatepublic partnership. The coal plants will need three billion dollar investment.
Coal would be imported from Indonesia or Australia unless Bangladesh's own coal fields can produce enough for these plants. Coal will be transported through the waterways.
The team will also seek investors for two large combined cycle power plants with a capacity ranging between 300 MW and 450 MW for Bibiyana-2 and Meghnaghat-2 and a 150 MW plant in Bhola. The Bhola plant will use gas from a small gas field discovered in the nineties but left unutilised.
In addition, the road show will seek investors for two 100 MW peaking power plants in Kaliakoir and Savar aimed at catering to industrial needs, especially tannery sector. Both of these plants will have dual fuel capacity so that they operate both on gas and oil.
Considering the country's on-going and future gas crisis in a situation where a good number of gas-based power and industrial units have already been installed, the government plans to install an LNG terminal in the Bay of Bengal, preferably near the off-shore Sangu gas field system. The terminal will help easy off-loading of imported LNG containers by ships and transmit LNG into the national gas system.
“The terminal should have the capacity to transmit 3.5 million tonnes of LNG," said PDB Chairman Alamgir Kabir.
This terminal, a popular method for import or export of LNG worldwide, might cost around one billion dollars.
According to Kabir, onH December 15 in London, the BOI chief will speak on investment climate and economic condition in Bangladesh while the power secretary and chair-men of the PDB and Petrobangla will make presentations on power, gas and LNG issues.
They will touch upon policy issues, track record of private power in Bangladesh where the government has not ever failed to pay power developers, and legal issues while private power developers never had any serious dispute with the government.
The BPC chairman will talk about facilitating fuel supplies in the two dual fuel power projects while the Berc chairman will speak on regulatory issues and tariff. The Bangladesh Bank deputy governor will dwell on transferability of foreign exchange and other relevant issues.
Following this seminar, the team will have one-to-one
discussion with the participants from afternoon till evening and on the next day till afternoon.
This is going to be the biggest power sector road show. The team will hold further road shows on the same investment prospect in Singapore and New York on January 25-26 and 28-29 next year.
“Our target Is to float the pre-qualification (PQ) process to find suitable investors by March next for Bibiyana, Meghnaghat and Bhola power projects," said the PDB chairman. After the PQ process filters out suitable power companies, the government will seek request for proposal from bidders for these projects.
In the coal-based power projects, the government targets floating the PQ process by next June, Kabir said. “We now have a team of experts to spearhead coal-fired projects. But we need more expertise. So, we will take some time to form an international expert panel to guide us with the coal plants.”
The PDB's coal experts will visit India on December 16-17 to see private and state-owned coal power projects and make inquiries. Later another team will visit Chinese coal-based power plants.
As per the Power System Master Plan (PSMP) update 2006, the demand for power this month should be 6,066 MW with the installed capacity 7,313 MW. But the power projects under implementation would add 811 MW by this month, leaving a power shortage of 1,467 MW.
The derated capacity of PDB now is around 5,000 MW, while it can actually generate less than 4,000 MW.
The PSMP update also says that the demand will shoot to 8,364 MW in 2013 while the installed capacity should be 9,979 MW.